• We can't afford a tax system that drives away business, says Hague• 'Impossible' for Labour to have cut deficit • Andrew Mitchell axes aid to sixteen countries including China• Baroness Warsi: We will fight for an outright majority• We must appeal to people from every background, chairman says• Cameron and Hague: Britain should not leave the EU• Francis Maude: opposition to planning reform is 'bollocks'• Cameron backs May over scrapping "chilling" Human Rights Act• 20,000 protestors in Manchester as labour laws targeted

As the highly influential ConservativeHome points out today, in the first edition of their conference newspaper, there are 4000 of we party members here in Manchester, each of whom has paid around £700 to attend. There are 7000 delegates from the media, and lobby groups.

The lobbyists are on their way to destroying conference: they take over fringe events, prevent open debate and push, push, push the line their employers pay them to articulate. Try speaking plain Tory at a Stonewall meeting on "Diversity" and see how far you get.

17.51 A roaring trade in 'Ed's knee-jerk chicken' - all left-wings, no backbones and made-up on the spot, ho ho.

17.32 Here's Cameron beaming as Hague pours praise on the Prime Minister, taken by Telegraph social media editor Kate Day.

17.18 Benedict Brogan has noticed how polite Hague has been about Nick Clegg - compared to the boo-hiss pantomime at the Liberal Democrats. Hague says:

We should always have the generosity of spirit to recognise the contribution he makes to turning this country around.

Brogan tweets:

That would be same generosity Clegg showed to Cameron in Birmingham

17.06 A long paean to David Cameron.

That would not have been possible, nor would anything of which I have spoken have been possible without the strength, determination and decisiveness of our Prime Minister, David Cameron. He is always open to discussion, but equally always ensures a decision is made. Never neglectful of the views of others, he is equally never afraid to make a stand. He has a strong sense of what is right, and brings a driving energy and ambition to achieving it. We are fortunate at such a difficult time, that truly we have leadership for a better future.

This week they will announce new homes construction plans, change to employment laws and "other measures to encourage growth."

17.01 I was right on the Euro, boasts Hague:

Whatever I’ve been wrong about, when some of us spoke thirteen years ago of the deep flaws in the euro we were right with every single word. In keeping public opinion against the idea of Britain joining it despite much derision, we, even in opposition, performed an important service for Britain.

He praises Nick Clegg's vote on tuition fees. And warns some Western economies will not make the transition and re-invent themselves as more high-tech. He warns:

this country can no longer afford a tax system that drives businesses away

17.00Hague says in opposition he was strong enough to tell his party to change - claiming by contrast Miliband is in hock to the Unions:

Ed Miliband set out to get rid of union block votes, and was stopped – by, guess what, block votes. He wanted a general secretary of his own choice, but the unions went for their choice, just as they chose, well, him. Now he is too frightened to tell the unions who pay for his party that it is not in the national interest for them to strike. Labour in opposition has become a by-word for wavering capitulation.

Labour’s approach, as we saw last week in Liverpool, will remain weak and wandering. Their shadow Chancellor was Gordon Brown’s right hand man. And their leader was right hand man to the right hand man. These are the men who thought that running up a deficit bigger in relation to our national income than that of Greece was actually a good idea.

16.59 He mocks Ed Miliband at Labour conference, saying there were too many "absurd" moments to choose from.

Was it when Harriet Harman said ‘we all want David, er, er, Ed elected as Prime Minister at the next election? Thank you, Harriet, yes, we all want David as Prime Minister after the next election. Or was it when Ed Miliband, having said Labour’s fightback would begin in Scotland didn’t even know who was running for the leadership of the Scottish Labour Party? Or was it when he announced he could distinguish between good businesses and bad businesses and was going to tax them all accordingly, which would be quite an achievement in a party where they can’t even remember their own names? Or was it when they announced a cap on tuition fees, but were then forced to admit this policy would expire before the next election so was not really a policy at all?

16.55 Hague says Labour would have had no mandate for cuts if it had been elected. He asked delegates to imagine a re-elected Labour government:

Despite all the insistence that all was well, that something could always be had for nothing, that deficits could go on growing without end, would have nevertheless embarked on major reductions in government spending - but without having had the honesty to say in the election that that was what would happen. Such an event, compounding incompetence with dishonesty, would have been the final straw for any faith this country could have in the probity, trustworthiness, and character of political leadership.

I say to those who are protesting outside here today: the money you were promised by the last Labour Government never existed, it was never there, and we have been left with the task of telling you the truth. A government betrays instead of serving its people if it allows them to live on a delusion and that we will not do.

16.49 William Hague is up and hails the biggest gains in the North of England for 80 years. This is a party faithful rally rather than a foreign policy speech.

16.37 Andrew Mitchell is up. He says Labour's spending on percussion groups and other use of aid money was an "insult to the British taxpayer." He says he ended aid to 16 countries, including China, which has a space programme. Money is going to Gurkha villages in Nepal and Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

All partner organisations have been ranked. Four have been put in "special measures", while funding has been pulled from the International Labour Organisation because it wasn't "delivering value." The two areas of focus are causes of poverty - conflict and developing the private sector, he says. There is now a private sector division within DFID, "dedicated to promoting that age old Tory principle and truth: that no matter where in our world, private enterprise is the engine of growth and development."

It's worth noting he didn't once mention the 0.7% spending pledge.

16.28Andrew Mitchell, international development secretary, is up next. Delegates are watching videos of projects funded by Britain, backed with jaunty pan pipe music.

"In Uganda they met people who would give their eye-teeth for the crusts of toast we leave on the breakfast plate," Baroness Jenkin of Kennington, chair of the new Conservative Friends of International Development, tells delegates of a volunteer party. "We will waste more in a year than these people will have in a lifetime," she says.

16.17 Charles Hendry, minister for energy and climate change, hails the building, without subsidy, of a new generation of nuclear power stations. Each will generate 5,000 jobs, he says, and Britain can become a major exporter of energy technology. Britain is "Now the most exciting place in the world for nuclear new build", he says. He says Britain is third-from-bottom in the EU for renewable energy.

His speech closes, bafflingly, with rave music and the lyrics: "Put your hands up and get on the floor."

15.58 Len McCluskey, leader of Unite, tells 20,000 marchers in Manchester he wants to see a "coalition of resistance."

If you want to call it a general strike then so be it. The reality is civil disobedience is the oldest form of democracy and we should applaud it, we should applaud direct action and fantastic organisations like UK Uncut. We should take our lead from the young people, the students who this time last year put 60 - 70,000 on the streets of London.

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15.48 Caroline Spelman, the environment minister, is on her feet.

Much murmuring can be heard when she promises a "more sympathetic planning system", adding:

We will maintain protections for the green belt, for National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

At 12.12 we reported she'd been warned by Theresa May she'll lose her job if she pushes ahead with a badger cull for TB.

Today, she announces a "tough new package of measures" to deal with bovine TB. But there's no elaboration? Shot-by-farmers-tough? It's not clear.

Arrived in Manchester. Just misdirected a man with a "Kick Out the Tories" sticker. I think he's walking now towards Stockport.

15.45 Owen Paterson, Northern Irish secretary, says he would like to see power-sharing evolve into a system of Government and Opposition.

He announces he will end 'double-jobbing' where people sit in both Stormont and Westminster - currently half of MPs in Northern Ireland are also MLAs.

He laments the fact that over 90 per cent of schools and public housing is segregated - costing £1.5bn in duplication and vacant school places - and the number of 'peace walls' between estates has gone up. He says ending the division of public services on sectarian line is the new focus.

He hails the "spectacular personal success" of the Queen's visit to Ireland.

The Queen meets Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Dublin in May

15.15 Will Heaven has been reading the Observer's 'expose' of George Osborne's Bullingdon days - in which he is claimed to have gone to a party where drugs were taken and have been present during a fist-fight - and concludes: It's hardly Chappaquiddick

The Observer makes George Osborne sound like Paul Pennyfeather, Evelyn Waugh's hapless hero in Decline and Fall. Pennyfeather is sent down from Oxford by a confused don, simply because his old school tie matches that of the Bollinger Club (the Bollinger, Waugh's satirical version of the Bullingdon Club, had stoned a caged fox to death with empty champagne bottles). Far from being a braying toff ringleader, young Osborne just got caught up in it all – and he sounds a bit frightened.

15.07 Annabel Goldie, the outgoing leader of the Scottish Conservatives, is making a plea for Unionism. She calls Alex Salmond the "portly President".

She calls for the mooted referendum to take place so Scotland can "stick with the UK" and "put this constitutional turmoil to bed." She says the idea Scotland takes more money than the rest of the UK is a myth - Wales, Northern Ireland and London also receive large amounts of government spending.

This is a dangerous line to play for Unionists - much of the SNP case is built on saying Scotland can pay its own way and isn't dependent on cash from the South.

14.38 Cheryl Gillan, the Welsh Secretary, is giving the Labour-run Welsh Government a stern telling-off. The devolved nation held a referundum on having great financial powers. She says it took six months for the Welsh government to announce its five enterprise zones.

We delivered a referendum in March to give the Assembly the tools to get on with the job of making its own decisions in devolved areas. The referendum result means a no excuses culture for the Welsh Government. They’ve got the powers and a £15 billion budget. It’s now time they got on with the job they were elected to do. Instead of dragging their feet. Blaming others. And complaining about what they’ve not got.

She says it's time to "look into how the Assembly gets its money" and "end power without responsibility."

At the Lib Dem conference Kirsty Williams, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and Gillan's supposed ally in Cardiff, pleased the rank and file with Bevan's comments that the Tories are "lower than vermin" - leaving the Welsh Office furious.

Andrew Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives, says Bevan is "turning in his grave" at NHS cuts in Wales by Labour. Cheeky.

14.20 An anecdote on those student protests in which Conservative HQ came under siege from student protestors.

"We defended the picture of HM and got ready to defend the statue of Lady T," she says. The Prime Minister called from Korea at the G20.

"Everything is under control," she told him. "That's not what it looks like on Korean TV," he replied. "It's just propoganda, you know what Korean state TV is like," she told him.

She says they will fight for an outright Conservative majority in 2015 and but to do so will mean broadening the party's appeal to attract different classes and races, and winning inner-city areas.

All the young Tories have been pushed to the front row, it seems.

14.14 Sayeeda Warsi, party chairman, is on her feet as the first speaker. Times are tough, stock markets are falling, but the government is making tough choices now for its children, she says.

She says she agrees with Ed Miliband that the "wrong people with the wrong values" have been rewarded in a "something for nothing society" - but roars "If you truly believe what you say then where have you been for the last thirteen years?" It was his party to blame for making a welfare system where it doesn't pay to work, she says.

She says it would be the "easiest thing in the world" to tell "the protestors out there" that Britain should borrow more but leadership requires telling people what they don't want to hear.

14.10 "We should all be proud of the role in ending Gaddafi's tyranical regime," says Fiona Hodgson, conference chairman, to a smattering of thin applause in a lengthy address. She is not the act delegates came to hear, it is fair to say.

She says she hopes delegates have brought old clothes to donate for the Oxfam stall. Somewhere in the Third World, kids this season will be wearing Boden.

"This lot are out in force - all over the Conference," he says. "Wonder what they think of Francis Maude's claim that they're insane..."

13.53 Police estimate 20,000 people are marching in Manchester. They have banners denouncing "Tory Fat Cats" and are chanting "Tories out."

Organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), it has been billed as a march and rally for "The Alternative - jobs, growth, justice" in opposition to the coalition Government's cuts to public services and pensions.

A major police operation is underway with "robust" action threatened against trouble-makers.

Demand: Not one cut - general strike now, urge protestors

13.23 Lord Young, Thatcher's fixer who left Downing Street as an adviser after telling the Telegraph recession-hit Brits had"never had it so good", is to return to the fold as red-tape axeman under Cameron's push to get growth going. "The fact that the Prime Minister is bringing him back into the fold demonstrates that he is now prepared to take political risks in the interests of economic progress," notes James Forsyth, political editor of the Spectator.

Michael Gove replied to the Transport Secretary's suggestion to raise the speed limit to 80mph to suggest it is scrapped altogether, the Mail reports. He took seven tries to pass his driving test.

13.04 David Willetts will later address the Conservative Policy Forum. He will say Britain is facing three crises: a social crisis, epitomised by the summer’s riots; a economic crisis, caused by excessive debt; and a political crisis, and a wider loss of trust in institutions.

He will also launch the next stage of the Red Tape Challenge - a three-week review into red tape on as part of a wider Employment Law Review.

Panic on the streets of London: rioters at large

On the riots he will say:

The shocking violent disorder on our streets last Summer seemed to be evidence of a deeper moral disorder. David Cameron conveyed all those anxieties about what is happening to our society when he warned that parts of our country are facing “slow motion moral collapse”. Bonds of trust and community matter even more than the physical environment. But they are eroding in parts of our country. During the riots shopkeepers were shocked that people from their own community were smashing and looting the very shops that serve them. Sometimes we fear that this is true of our country as a whole. A report by Legal and General last year found that 70% of us don’t know our neighbours’ names and wouldn’t recognise them if we passed them in the street.

12.54 Hailing Britain's scientific prowess, Cameron told Marr that Britain "invented DNA." It has sparked a Twitter pun: #PMscience. Other great British inventions, it is said, include time, dinosaurs, gravity, evolution, soil, and the direction known as 'up'.

12.49 Ed's chicken: some wares from the conference stalls

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12.44 Andrew Porter reports on that TUC march. Many would-be protestors have hit the beach, it seems.

Supposedly 40,000 were turning up for the TUC march. I'd take that with a heavy pinch of salt. The streets around Manchester Central are blocked in prepartion but only a smattering of activists so far. A few choice chants starting to rise though: "Tory scum" and "Cameron out" among them.

12.27 Boris Johnson will use his speech at Conservative conference to call for an end to a ban on police arresting yobs who shout obscenities at the police.

Police are told they cannot arrest swearing people under the Public Order Act at officers - as they might if they swore at other members of the public - as police are meant to have thicker skins and so cannot suffer "harassment, alarm or distress."

No tolerance: police should arrest those who swear at them, Johnson says

A Met instruction card given to officers reads: "The courts do not accept police officers are caused harassment, alarm or distress by words such as f---, c--t, b------s or w-----s."

Johnson has won the backing of new Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe. The Mayor told the Mail:

Public servants are not there to be abused. How can a copper cope with the job if the public are allowed to insult them with impunity? What hope as a teacher of controlling a class if the law allows a youth to swear at an officer on the street? It is time to restore borders to behaviour, discpline, decency and respect for the rule of law.

12.23 Here's PJ Harvey meeting the Camerons on the Andrew Marr show.

She sang The Last Living Rose, which begins: "Goddamn Europeans!" Very apt.

The PM relaxes in the BBC's new Salford Quay studios

12.12 Theresa May has gone to war with environment secretary Caroline Spelman over a badger cull and warned her: your career is on the line.

Farmers are desperate for the animals to be slayed to combat the spread of TB in cattle which costs £100m a year.

But May fears it could cause protests which would use up police resources during Olympics years - leading to accusations of meddling in other people's briefs.

A source told the Mail on Sunday: "Theresa and Caroline have had words over this. Theresa told her bluntly: You need to think of your career before pressing ahead with this.

"We understand she is worried in principle about a cull but specifically about police resources being stretched when it's all hands to the pump during the Olympics."

12.00 Yvette Cooper pounces on that sexism apology:

David Cameron is typically out of touch if he thinks his only problem with women is spin and presentation. Women are angry about what the government is doing, not what he is saying. Women are still being hit twice as hard as men, facing record levels of unemployment, major cuts to child care support and women in their fifties face a £5,000 raid on their pensions.

11.52 Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, is not impressed at May's call to scrap the Human Rights Act.

Modern Conservatives should think again about human rights values that were truly Churchill's legacy. Only a pretty 'nasty party' would promote human rights in the Middle East whilst scrapping them at home.

While Sadiq Khan, Labour's shadow justice secretary, wants to know whether Clegg has now been "over-ruled" by the Home Secretary. He says:

The Human Rights Act is the most significant defence for ordinary people against state power ever passed into law. Simply scrapping it is a lazy and incoherent position to hold. It isn't the Human Rights Act that is weakening the fight against crime; it is 20 per cent police cuts and Tory Ministers' restrictions on DNA and CCTV.

11.48 Here's David Cameron saying: We need to be in the European Union

The slogan for Conservative conference is "Leadership for a better future", which speaks to Team Dave's belief that the public wants to see serious politicians for serious times showing that they can get the country through the economic crisis and back to growth. It helped, therefore, that Dave had a good outing on Marr earlier. He spoke clearly, in simple terms, and looked and sounded like a man in charge.

Beneath the PM’s glassy-smooth surface, anxiety lurks. Building Mr Cameron’s personal brand is like painting the Forth Bridge, a never-ending labour. Let up even briefly and the rust will set in... Tory officials say the conference is less about policy, more about tone. Party members who want their leader to channel Margaret Thatcher this week will be disappointed. Yes, we’ll get a lot of talk about red tape, deregulation and helping businesses, but the real mode for the PM this week is not Lady T but Bill Clinton. David Cameron will spend the next few days feeling your pain.

11.12 The only Tory MP in Scotland has described a proposal to scrap the party north of the border as a "betrayal". David Mundell criticised the plan by Scottish Conservative leadership candidate Murdo Fraser MSP. Mr Fraser, one of 15 Tories in the Scottish Parliament, believes the party brand is toxic and should be replaced with a new centre-right alternative.

Mr Mundell said:

I cannot support the disbanding of our party. It is a betrayal of our stalwart members and activists and the 420,000 people who voted Conservative at the UK general election. I had intended to remain neutral in this election contest, given my position as our only MP, and a government minister, but I cannot continue to remain silent. The prospect of winding up SCUP and the threat of a serious split is too great.

Today outgoing Scots Tory leader Annabel Goldie will tell conference the UK will suffer if Scotland leaves the Union - and will claim Scotland is not subsidised by the rest of the UK.

"Put at its simplest, being Scottish and British - or English or Welsh or Northern Irish and British - is a state of mind," she will say.

11.18 Eric Pickles' war on local authority spendthriftery continues: he accuses council chief execs of showing a "fundamental failure of leadership" for refusing to take pay cuts - and says with satisfaction that some chief execs who failed to take salary cuts and attacked him have been desposed.

"I think there's a lot more to squeeze in terms fo top salaries," he says, and adds it is wrong for chief execs to take cash for acting as returning officers in elections.

He says the cuts have not had the dreadful impact some have claimed, saying: "In terms of the bleeding stumps we were promised, You have to concede, they've not happened."

He says he is pleased 66 per cent of the public back him over weekly bins, saying the £250m cash came from efficiencies at his department.

No bleeding stumps - Eric Pickles

11.07 Eric Pickles says he was 24 years old when he bought his first house, lamenting the lack of housing in Britain. On today's announcement, he says a housing document will be produced in a "matter of weeks". He says there is plenty of land available and blames a lack of bank lending. His bank manager thought he didn't have a enough money but decided to "take a punt" because he thought he'd make a success of himself. He warns against building too heavily on green spaces in towns.

She seemed to admit as much in yesterday's Guardian. Interviewer Decca Aitkenhead noted:

I can see incisions in the creases where her ears and cheeks meet that look so fresh, they still have tiny lines of scab. In fact, they look exactly like the lines left by what is known as a Chicago facelift – a procedure favoured by relatively young women with a strong jaw line and chin, and popular on account of its short recovery time

Quizzed on the marks, Mensche replies:

My God. Um... OK... I've always wondered what I would say the first time somebody asked me this question. And without denying it, I'm going to refuse to answer your question, because as soon as I do that you become the minister for mascara. I'm not going to talk about my various and sundry beauty treatments, of which there are many. My beauty secrets are between me and my… as I say, various, er, therapists... I'm refusing to answer. But you should note that I'm not denying anything.

Nip/tuck - Mensch hints she went under the knife

10.32 There is some confusion on the EU this morning. The Mail on Sunday leads with the news that "a historic vote on growing demands for Britain to leave the European Union will be held in the Commons before Christmas." This is thanks to an online petition, which has now garnered 100,000 signatures.

The decision to hold a debate was made after a petition signed by more than 100,000 people demanding a referendum was submitted to a new group of MPs given the job of making sure Parliament does not sweep controversial issues under the carpet.

It is not clear how that would square with Francis Maude's comments, again in the Independent on Sunday, that the Conservatives are "not a party which is anti-European. We are not an anti-EU party." The Mail on Sunday notes gloomily that, "if MPs vote in favour of a referendum, the result would not be binding."

10.18 The Conservative heartlands will be appalled by Francis Maude's comments in the Independent on Sunday. He describes Tory opposition to the Government's controversial planning reforms as "bollocks", adding that it is "insane" that there is not already a high-speed rail line running the length of the country.

On the one hand , the 58-year-old can seem laid back, indifferent even. Then, in the next breath, he is vowing to take on the unions, accusing the National Trust of peddling "bollocks" about planning reforms, and insisting it is "insane" that Britain does not already have a high-speed rail line: "Actually you have just got to take a view that this is in the national interest and see it through."

Maude was the champion for the 'big society', but hints it has been dropped from conference. Asked whether he will use the phrase, he says: "I don't know. I would have thought it will come up. The 'Big Society' is not a government programme: it's an idea of what you want society – what you want Britain – to be like.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Telegraph reports that ministers are to fight back on planning by offering developers deals to buy up surplus government land and build around 100,000 new homes and create 200,000 new homes. It's the first part of a "housing package" that will be introduced at the conference this week.

10.15 Hague rebuts calls for stimulus. "The answer to excessive borrowing and debt cannot be more borrowing and debt." The PM and wife have just arrived at conference. She's wearing a cream jacket with black skinny trousers and heels.

Interviewer Dermot Murnaghan asks Hague if there will there be "return fire", after Chris Huhne referred to "Tea Party Tories" at the Lib Dem conference. Teasingly, Hague responds, "I think there may be a little bit of that return fire."

10.11 Singer PJ Harvey is on the sofa next to the PM. Sam Cam bought her album off i-tunes. "Listened to it a couple of times. Very keen," says Dave.

But Harvey takes him to task over 100 per cent arts cuts taking place in her area. "I worry that cuts are being made in that area. The whole word is being steered towards economic gains," she says to him.

Cuts protest: PJ Harvey tackled the PM on arts funding.

10.09Foreign Secretary William Hague rules out an in-out referdum as "Not very sensible" as it will cause uncertainty for business at a time when growth is needed. But working with EU partners can be "exasperating and difficult" - citing Syrian sanctions negotiations - but the outcome is worthwhile. "I want to be in Europe but not run by Europe."

"We are committed as a Government to handing over no more powers to the European Union," he says.

Significantly, he emphasises that the Commons debate on an EU referendum – contrary to the Mail on Sunday’s front page report – is not guaranteed. More than 100,000 people have signed the online petition, but they may be ignored by the MPs commitee which decides which topics are debated.

10.06 The PM appears to shy away from calling for the Human Rights Act to be scrapped, following Theresa May's comments to the Sunday Telegraph. The commission looking at the British Bill of Rights "Will go more slowly than Thereas or I would want."

The problem is not the Act per se but the "chilling effect" of people mistakenly interpreting their obligations under it. "Let's have some common sense, let's have some judgement," he says. He will try to tinker with the European Convention of Human Rights, he says.

He refuses to be "rude" about his coalition partners, saying he is "grown up enough" to deal with disagreements - in contrast to the Lib Dems who were rather rude about him at their conference two weeks ago. "I don't believe this government is "held back" by the cuddly Liberal Democrats" he says, citing increasing NHS spending.

Samantha and David Cameron visited Warwick Hospital before heading to Manchester

10.00On planning, Cameron says: "I represent a constituency in Oxford, the gateway to the Cotswolds, one of the most beautiful in the country... I would no more put that at risk than put my own family at risk.

But he says house builidng under Labour was at its lowest since 1924 and the average buyer is now 37.

He says just because planning restrictions aren't in the national guidelines doesn't mean local authorities can't stop building. And there needs to be a system where local people can enjoy the benefits of building e.g. the new homes bonus.

"Of course they are expressing their concerns, that's their job, and we will reflect them," he says of campaigners. But he says local people should have the control to allow limited development to "put life" into village pubs and school" and prevent a "slow death" of villages.

09.50 The priority is growth rather than tax cuts, the PM says. Calls for a Plan B stimulus package risk driving up interest rates, he says:

"Those people who argue a few more million now won't make a difference. Is it really a good risk to spend a few more billion now and put at risk the low interest rates that are key to your survival?"

He hails 500,000 new private sefctor jobs since the election - "it takes time and it is difficult" he says but rebalancing is taking place he says, citing car manufacturing at Jaguar, Honda, Nissan and Toyota.

He begins on those accusations of sexism in the Commons: "It's not what I'm like, it's not who I am. Must do better." He says PMQs is aggressive and confrontational: "This is not an excuse, it's an explanation"

"At the heart of many families are women worrying about the family budget," he says. He says the cuts are having an impact on households and: "We have to do better at explaining why this is necessary".

The solution to the Eurozone crisis is "clearer all the time," he says: strengthening financial mechanisms, strenghtening banks, more IMF involvement and dealing with debt. It is "a threat not just to itself, to the British economy and the worldwide economy". Eurozone countries have "got to get ahead of the markets now." He says there will need to be closer integration of European finances between nations. But break up of the Euro would be "very bad" for Britain - 40 per cent of our exports go to Europe. "We can't insure ourselves against the fact that Germany and France, the two biggest economies in Europe have stalled."

On those demands for a referendum: "We've given too many powers to Europe and there's some powers I'd like back from Europe."

"It is not our view there should be a in-out referendum. What most people want is not to leave the EU but reform and make the balance of powers between Britain and Europe better."

09.18 Up to 30,000 protestors are expected to march in Manchester today.

Organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), it has been billed as a march and rally for "The Alternative - jobs, growth, justice" in opposition to the coalition Government's cuts to public services and pensions. Groups including UK Uncut are taking part and police have promised to be "robust" with troublemakers. A mass rally at the end of the march will be addressed by union bosses including Bob Crow, leader of the RMT, Mark Serwotka from the PCS union and Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite.

The main march will assemble on Liverpool Road from 12pm, move off at 1.00pm and arrive for the rally, at Number One First Street, a large open space on the edge of the city centre, at 2pm. A "feeder march" from Salford will assemble on Salford Crescent at 10.30am and a students march will assemble at 11am on Oxford Road before both join the main march in the city centre.

The coalition has launched atwin-pronged attack on union interests. Francis Maude has confirmed restrictions are being drawn up to prevent Whitehall shop stewards working full-time on union duties, while George Osborne is increasing the period before which a worker can go to an employment tribunal to two years. The Unions are "muscling in" on Labour policy - and Unite the Union is launching an anti-cuts think tank CLASS - Centre for Labour and Social Studies.

09.00 Today's top conference stories:

• David Cameron issues an apology in the Sunday Times for telling Angela Eagle to "Calm down, dear" and saying Nadine Dorries was "frustrated". He said the comments - interpreted as sexist - were a "terrible mistake" and he had "screwed up." He said he had been imitating a Michael Winner commercial.

What I find frustrating is that I'm not a sort of 'all right luv I'm down at the pub tonight' whatever. That's not me. But obviously I've come across in this way. If I offended anyone I am hugely sorry. That is not what I wanted to do. It was a light-hearted reference.

Patrick Hennessy reveals the PM istrailing in the polls amongst women. He is perceived as failing to understand "women, single parents, small business people, ethnic minorities, Northerners, homosexuals and lesbians, pensioners, people living in high crime areas, public sector workers and those "struggling to make ends meet".

Osborne's plan envisaged a resurgent private sector. This plainly is not happening. A marginal improvement in exports here and a new Google tech centre there have been countered with news of industry regression rather than renaissance. Pfizer closed its research facility in Kent; Bombardier cut jobs after Siemens was chosen for the Thameslink trains contract and then came the 3,000 job cuts at BAE Systems, the defence contractor. Industrial output remains stubbornly below pre-crisis levels.

•The Home Secretary Theresa May calls for the Human Rights Act to be scrapped - putting her on collision course with the Lib Dems. She tells Patrick Hennessy:

I’d personally like to see the Human Rights Act go because I think we have had some problems with it. I see it, here in the Home Office, particularly, the sort of problems we have in being unable to deport people who perhaps are terrorist suspects. Obviously we’ve seen it with some foreign criminals who are in the UK.

08.36 The theme of this year's conference is: "Strong leadership for a better future." The focus will heavily be on debt. Welcoming delegates Baroness Warsi said:

The British people said at last year's election that it was time for a change. That's why this government is leading the way to a fairer future that builds a greater sense of responsibility and supports those who do the right thing. Although these are difficult times, we are going to stay the course. By taking tough decisions now, we create a better future for our children.

Coming up today

14.00 - Opening of Conference

Fiona Hodgson, Conference Chairman

Sayeeda Warsi, Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party

14.20 - A United Kingdom

Owen Paterson, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Cheryl Gillan, Secretary of State for Wales

David Mundell, Minister of State at the Scotland Office

Andrew Davies, Leader of the Welsh Assembly

15.20 - The Environment and Climate Change

Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Greg Barker, Charles Hendry

16.00 - International Development

Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development

16.30 - Foreign Affairs

William Hague Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

08.30Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the Conservative Party Conference, beginning today in Manchester.